Might not be worthy of an individual thread, but I’m curious what people think would commonly be considered the most taboo magic in Azeroth from the perspective of an average citizen. The top three seem like Necromancy, Void, and Fel. But I’m not quite sure which would be the worst.
Necromancy obviously was looked down upon even before the Third War, messing with the dead and what not. Adding the death of numerous nations because of the Lich King.
Fel obviously relating to demons and corruption. Also long standing mistrust of the practitioners. Made ever more clear from the recent Legion invasion.
Void is tough as I’m not always sure how much a common person knows about the Old Gods. There are Twilight cultists who mention is, plus Deathwing. But again, I don’t always know the precise associations. Regardless, long looked down upon due to it being antithetical to the Light.
I would say that Necromancy is the most taboo, given that the canon lore says that there were Warlocks that had a hand in the demise of the world’s greatest threats.
It seems that Warlocks, while still outcasts, are generally accepted for the sake of defending the world. We have seen Necromancers as ‘kill on sight’ since vanilla.
In BFA, the Horde is about to have yet another civil war, with Sylvanas’ actions being the cause. Two of these actions being the murder and raising into undeath of the Horde’s own troops at Lordaeron and the raising of Derek Proudmoore as a tool to harm Kul Tiras.
As you mentioned, the Void and the Old Gods don’t seem to be well known by Azeroth as a whole, while zombies raise alarm bells in everyone’s head.
True, but Death Knights still need to cause pain to sustain themselves, so I find it very hard to believe that any exist anywhere near any civil populations. I could definitely see there being a bigger stink about DKs being around than Warlocks.
Demon Hunters were recently brought back to help defend the world, to use fel to fight off our destruction. Seems that, in general, fel is more acceptable (though still not really acceptable at all).
I think necromancy would be the most widely reviled and hated form of magic as it has effected every race in a deep and traumatic way. The Scourge brought about the collapse of the alliance in the third war and even went so far as to break free of the legion’s thrall to continue scouring the world of life. Necromancy is like lassoing a hurricane once you unleash undeath onto the world there is no controlling it, and you’re foolish if you think you’re capable of doing it. Just ask Gul’dan, Kil’jaden, or Mal’ganis.
A very interesting question. I was going to say Necromancy, but I want to lean towards Fel as well.
I first thought Necromancy because I figured that would be the one most “average citizens” would have had exposure to. And I wanted to say whatever magic they’ve seen commit horrible acts the most would be the most taboo for them. But then I realized I was thinking in terms of Humans.
I realized races like Orcs, Draenei, and possible Night Elves would have had more exposure towards Fel in the past.
So I think it’s a close call between those two, Fel and Necromancy. I’d say it’d change depending on the people. Humans might revile Necromancy more thanks to their experience with the Scourge whereas Draenei might consider Fel to be the most taboo as they’ve seen countless horrors committed using it.
a true point as well but if you read the war of the ancients trilogy the night elves saw necromancy during the collapse of the night elf empire, and the orcs saw necromancy both from the necrolytes and later the death knights. the trolls also know of necromancy first hand from the collapse of the Drakrai empire in northrend, and the blood elves were nearly purged from existence by undeath so while i’m not sure which would be seen as worse from races that have had exposure to both but I can say that the average humanoid on azeroth has had far more exposure to necromancy than any other dark magic.
I think that in most societies, not all, necromancy is the most taboo. Not to say that it’s the worst, because I’d argue that of the three it’s the least evil. And some societies have different views. Fel is way more taboo to Orcs and the Void will clearly be very taboo in Draenei culture.
It’s gotta be necromancy full stop. Pretty much every race has some sort of theology about what happens to their dead or just simple rites and necromancy makes a mockery of that.
Fel is still more destructive as any Zone it saturates will feed on the Life energies of any and all surrounding areas it has not spread to. No other Cosmic Force seems to do that not even the Void.
Terokkar(described as Fel-saturated by the Illidan Novel), the Throne of Kil’jaeden and Shadowmoon Valley are so Fel Saturated that they along with the Dark Portal leached away the Life of Tanaan Jungle creating Hellfire Peninsula!
Of course for a Zone to be drained of Life it needs more than one Fel area surrounding it as Zangermarsh(which has only Terokkar next to it) and the areas surrounding Duskwood can attest.
The Void only starts incinerating foliage when it reached high amounts. None of the Void corrupted areas of Townlong Steppes created by the Sha of Hatred had Void-burned patches and the Void flames only started to appear after the Pandaren attempted a cleansing ritual.
The Dread Wastes is entirely Void corrupted by the Sha of Fear(to the point where it’s blue) and the Void flames only appear in the central area of the Dread Wastes. The Vale of Eternal Blossoms was made to blossom as a result of Shaohao unleashing the Sha of Pride and only started burning when Y’Shaarj’s Heart was resurrected.
Drustvar is a land filled with Death Magic and it’s unharmed unlike the denizens in the area. The Plaguelands have Fel mixed with both it’s Death Magic and it’s Nature Magic and it’s obviously the Fel and Fungus/Life that is killing the Plaguelands.